As world leaders attempt to negotiate a global plan to address plastic pollution, industries whose bottom lines depend on the continued use and production of plastic are in Ottawa to advocate against production limits.
As delegates disembarked at the Ottawa airport, they were greeted with industry-sponsored banners and at the Westin Hotel Ottawa, where many delegates are staying, advertisements covered the third floor with slogans such as “These plastics save lives” and “These plastics supply water”.
At the hotel, the Alliance to end plastic waste – a prominent industrial group – had a large installation promoting a circular economy for plastics to show to delegates from member states.
The plastics industry’s sales pitch centers on the progressive-sounding idea of a circular economy, where plastics never become waste, but are recycled, composted or reused. Rob Ralston, associate professor of political science at the University of Edinburgh, says the plastics and consumer goods industry won a “key battle” in the public relations game by making the term ubiquitous.
A UK-based charity called Ellen MacArthur Foundation and “the industry put a lot of effort and resources into trying to promote this idea to the point that now it’s almost like an accepted term,” ralston said Canadian National Observer in the negotiations. He is currently studying the UN Treaty on plastic pollution and corporate power. People are pretty skeptical about recycling’s ability to address plastic pollution, but consumer goods companies’ talk about a circular economy is mostly recycling, reframed, Ralston said.
Globally, only nine percent of plastic is successfully recycled, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) 2019 statistics.
Although recycling is part of the solution, “we will not recycle our way out of plastic pollution. That is very clear to me,” said Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault. Canadian National Observer In an interview.
“Why do we expect corporate actors whose business models conflict with treaty goals to act in a way that aligns with health and environmental goals?” Ralston said.
The plastics industry’s sales pitch centers on the progressive-sounding idea of a circular economy, but for consumer goods companies, this is still largely focused on recycling. #GlobalPlasticsTreaty
The Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) identified 196 participants in the UN talks from groups affiliated with fossil fuels and petrochemicals, a 37 percent increase over figures from the last round of negotiations in Nairobi. However, CIEL’s analysis did not attempt to count the large contingent of consumer goods companies, multinational food and beverage companies (such as McDonald’s or Pepsi, for example) or any of their associated industry groups.
CIEL and other environmental groups argue that the presence of lobbyists for industries responsible for creating the plastics crisis obstructs progress.
Representatives of the plastics industry are here “as a good faith actor with motivations to contribute to environmental solutions” and provide information to member states, said Betsy Bowers, executive director of the EPS Industry Alliance, in an interview with Canadian National Observer.
“We are a legitimate stakeholder and should be given the same respect and consideration as any stakeholder who takes the time and energy to come to the table and contribute to the solution,” Bowers said.. The alliance represents the expanded polystyrene industry.
A production cap or ban on plastic packaging could “crush” some companies’ business models, even for a diverse business where only a third of its portfolio is plastic packaging, Bowers said.
Kenneth Faulkner, Calgary Government Relations Director Nova Chemical Productsattended with four other members of the Canadian Chemical Industry Association, a lobby group representing the majority of Canada’s chemical and plastics industry.
More than 99 percent of plastic is made from fossil fuel chemicals. The International Energy Agency projected Plastic production will boost About half the growth of the oil and gas industry. between 2018 and 2050.
“Pollution begins right when oil and gas is extracted from the ground, when it is refined… The toxic substances that reach the air and water from those two extraction and refining processes are killing frontline communities, where rates of cancer are high. “It’s skyrocketing,” said Karen Wirsig, senior director of Environmental Defense’s plastics program. “Then when we use plastics, even before we throw them in the trash, they are leaching toxic chemical additives and microplastics into our food and water.”
Canada is part of High ambition coalition (a group of countries aiming to eliminate plastic pollution worldwide by 2040) and ban single-use plastics nationally in 2021. The petrochemical industry successfully fought the ban in the Federal Court, but the government The federal government is appealing the ruling.
Guilbeault said Canadian National Observer believes that thanks to abundant studies on the effects of plastic on health and the environment, the federal government will be able to successfully appeal the ruling. But Guilbeault emphasizes that banning single-use plastics is just a tool and does not believe it is possible to “ban our way out of plastic pollution.”
Guilbeault said he hasn’t had much engagement with the oil, gas and petrochemical industries in the lead-up to the negotiations.
“The fact that some of them are suing us is not very conducive to having open conversations about these things,” he said.
The coalition of plastic companies suing the federal government includes Dow Chemical, Imperial Oil and Nova Chemicals. Alberta also intervened in the case.
But the fact that certain lobby groups and jurisdictions oppose federal action on climate, nature and plastics should not prevent us from continuing to act, Guilbeault said.
Despite leadership on the world stage and the ban on single-use plastics, Wirsig noted that federal and provincial governments continue to subsidize the petrochemical industry to produce plastics.
Dow could receive up to 2.2 billion dollars in tax credits (up to $400 million from federal investment tax credits for carbon capture and hydrogen projects) from federal and provincial governments to produce polyethylene, a primary plastic for single-use products.
Subsidizing plastic production “makes plastic artificially cheap” on the market, which helps big companies like Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Mars and Unilever, Wirsig said.
Plastics also cause greenhouse gas emissions that warm the planet throughout their life cycle, especially during production. Plastics generated 3.4 percent (1.8 billion tons) of global emissions in 2019, according to the OECD and 90 percent of that amount came from plastic production and conversion from fossil fuels.
At the plastics treaty negotiations and at side events, people from communities affected by plastic pollution spoke about its impact on their lives, environment and health.
“I think on the chemical side of things, on the one hand, pragmatically, accidents are going to happen in any industry. So at this point, bringing that up in terms of the plastics treaty is, I think, normal,” Bowers said, when asked to respond to the Aamjiwnaang First Nation highlighting a dangerous leak of benzene and other pollution at long term of the chemical plants that plague the First Nation.
—With files from John Woodside